"Michael and Me"

Yesterday was my most interesting VIFF experience to date. I didn't have my act together this year prior to the film fest; I didn't get an event guide book to choose my movies ahead of time. Life gets busy and my usual go-to bookstore was all out by the time I stopped by.

My secondary source was the local newspaper which lead me to to an ad for the 30th anniversary screening of "Roger & Me" with Michael Moore (the director) appearing in person for a Q&A session afterwards. Apparently TIFF and VIFF were the first two venues to pick up his movie back in '89. Seems it was a bit to toxic at the time for American networks to touch. Having never seen the movie I was very intrigued and tried to buy tickets. This was on Thursday before the Saturday screening. Of course, there were standby tickets only by that point.

Undeterred I proceeded with my plan B. We usually get up early on Saturdays to meet with our jogging group but I chose to go downtown instead and lined up in the Vancouver Playhouse standby line. Turns out I'm either a Super Fan or an ultra-keener because I was the only person in line from about 9:30 to about 11:00 a.m. when the box office opened. However, in the meantime Shauna had texted me to ask if I'd had any success, and based upon the non-existent ticket line-up I'd reported she decided to skip our usual post-jogging coffee gathering and join me for the screening, assuming I'd score two seats.

Sure enough, by the time she'd arrived I already had bought one ticket from a fellow film goer with an extra ticket for sale. Then shortly after Shauna arrived I was able to buy the ONE ticket that the box office had in reserve.

Once inside seated in our 3rd row seat (!) Mr. Moore was introduced to a standing ovation even before he said anything. He had an interesting and humorous (albeit rather long) introduction, at the tail end of which he invited everyone present to join him afterwards at the Library Square Pub for more discussion and a drink, the first round being on his tab! He explained that this generosity was in thanks for our country's initial support of his first film.

Michael Moore with CBC's Stephen Quinn

An extraordinary experience, to say the least. It turned out to be kind of a combination film screening/ Writers' Fest-style presentation. I make that comparison because this week we were also fortunate to attend a Writers' Festival event featuring Malcolm Gladwell (interviewed by CBC's Lisa Chistiansen).

Michael had to get a post-screening selfie to commemorate his standing
ovation. Stephen Quinn, the host, posted this shot on Twitter. Shauna and
I are in row 3 (with me looking at my phone to see if I had gotten a clear
photo of Michael).

Serendipitous Security Screening

I know, I know, TLDR, but this is why I’m stunned by how well this morning turned out.

For my job site visit in Kelowna, in an environmentally conscious vein, I took transit instead of my car which meant I arrived about 15 minutes behind my ideal schedule.

And to make matters worse, as soon as I was halfway down the airport escalator the full consequence of my folly was realized. The day after the Labour Day long weekend is no day to cut corners on timing. The queue snaked through its full complement of posts and ribbon permutations to extend outside the security zone which meant about four more rows of people had been added even before entering the security screening lobby.

I was silently doing the math in my head of how I would probably JUST make my flight if I jogged straight from the secure area to my gate (alas, no breakfast!) when a uniformed woman interrupted my trance to say I’d been selected for security pre-screening, based mostly on the bulk of my backpack I surmised.

After effortlessly being allowed to bypass probably 400-500 people in line ahead of me I realized I was enjoying a breakfast sandwich and an Americano only about 20 minutes after exiting the Skytrain. Unbelievable how things turn out sometimes!

And plus, my flight was only about 2/3 full, meaning I enjoyed more elbow room with no one else in my row. And plus-plus, it was sunny and I had a south-facing window seat. A good start to my day!

A Hike-and-a-Half

To be clear, the title is not to be confused with a hike-and-a-half marathon combo. That's just silly. :-) Our running group has just completed its 2nd annual hike. Last year we went north along Lynn Canyon to Lynn Headwaters. It was a good hiking distance for noobies and plus Philip guided us to a semi-secret location of a massive boulder in the forest. It was quite a surreal sight.

This year we started from the same parking lot but veered a bit northwest towards Norvan Falls. Turns out we covered about 20 km round trip. Perhaps jogging and cycling aren't preparatory enough pursuits to train oneself for that distance. As our Scottish friend Jacqui would say, we were nackered!

Here's almost all of us at the start. Just look at that naive enthusiasm!

A-hiking we will go, a-hiking we will go...

I guess this one grew out from under a downed tree for its
formative years until the horizontal log decomposed.

I would not have thought it likely that such a large tree
could have grown atop a boulder. And check out the
buckboard chop-outs in the stump behind it.

And here's the payoff we hiked 10 km to see; Novan Falls.
Impressive, but not exactly Niagara. In order words, we weren't
deafened by the pounding water or drenched by the mist
upon our approach. :-)

Crossing this suspension bridge is the way one continues to Grouse Mountain.
We only did it for the photo op.

Whipped cream on a tree? Not sure as no one in our group would sample it.
Fungi in all likelihood.

Remnants of the old skid road. It's a wooden track along
which loggers used to drag cut logs.

With the high humidity we experienced during the hike
there was an abundance of trailside mushrooms.

One of our canine hiking companions, Geordie, knows
how to relax after a day hike.

Fortunately, no bruins were encountered. This sign was
actually directed at a trail we didn't take.

The Cascades and Southern BC

Just got back from a 1,000 km jaunt through northern WA (the Cascades including Winthrop) and southern BC (Oliver to Princeton), then home to Vancouver.

I must say, I was squirming a bit on the saddle the last couple of hours. We took Hwy 7 instead of Hwy 1; may not have been any faster but as least we moved at a steady pace. Hwy No. 1 can be a parking lot some Sunday evenings.

About 22 bikes showed up. This is part of the group in Sumas, WA.

Weather was still kinda dismal by the time we reached Concrete, WA. I've
always wondered if this place ever gets mistakenly referred to as
"Cement, WA".  (A wee bit of construction humour)  :-)

Chris, Lyle and me (reverse order) at Ross Lake, WA.

A few riders from our group pulled in after us at the lookout above Ross Lake.

Here's a few of us posing alongside our faithful steeds with a glimpse of Ross Lake
in the background.

We lunched at a place located just before the actual town of Winthrop; parking
for lots of motorcycles was the draw. Unfortunately we overwhelmed the staff
which resulted in a longer stay than anticipated. But then again, it's a leisure
weekend. Not like anyone was checking their watches.

This is the result of 2 hours sleep the night before. We've all been there.  Let's
call it a Ninja nap.

A portion of the hotel parking lot in Oliver, BC.

Reservations for 22 at a local brew pub for dinner.

They weren't kidding when they called it a "micro" brewery. To be
fair however, the tiny samplers did help me choose my dinner
beverage.

Lots of exotic bikes on display in the parking lot.

Mostly BMWs and Ducatis with this Aprilia thrown in the mix. 

Here's our micro group at Ford Lake somewhere in the hills east of Penticton.

And finally, here's me having run out of gas about 10 km east of Hope. I forgot
to top up in Prinnceton.  Doh!

Easter Long Weekend in Winnipeg

Phase 4 of our Jet Set April took us to Winnipeg for Easter long weekend to see Shauna's family and friends. Flight times proved beneficial in maximizing our stay; 4 full days. I took Tannah to Mom's place after work on Wednesday because I knew I'd be pressed for time. Our flight left at around 8 pm and with the 2 hour time change I think we were in bed in Winnipeg by 1:30 a.m.

Needless to say, we slept in on Friday morning, then went to The Forks for awhile. Since it was Good Friday, almost everything in Winnipeg was closed for a stat holiday. I'd almost forgotten what that feels like; in the Vancouver area it seems everything's open all the time. It's been that way for years. That evening we attended a play called "John". And to tell you hardly anything about the play, one of the lines was "Everyone knows a John." That's likely true, at least in North America and probably Europe.

Saturday morning we met Michele for breakfast at Clementine's in the Exchange District followed by a trip to her apartment to meet her new spaniel, Finley (!).

I think Finley liked me after I played fetch with him for a hour.

Saturday evening Shauna had gotten us "Whiteout" tickets for the arena to watch Game 6 of the Jets/Blues series; an away game, but it was a good opportunity to be a part of a Jets playoff series. Unfortunately it was to be the end of the line this season for the Jets. But at least we came away with souvenir White-out towels.

Golf, Jets, Golf!

Anybody who is anybody was there for the White-out; even Princess Leah,
danishes and all.

Jim and Marlene even attracted the attention of the roving CTV sports news crew after the game. It must have been those new jerseys; they looked like hardcore seasons tickets fans.

Somewhere on the cutting room floor...alas we did not see them on the 11:30
sports review that night.

Easter Sunday morning we jogged a bit through Assiniboine Park. A bit of new construction has begun since I was last there: Canada's Diversity Gardens, housed in a new Conservancy building.

A new Conservancy coming soon.

After sleeping in it was almost too warm for comfortable jogging.

The Jet on Portage has turned a shade redder since that uncharacteristically
lackluster Game 6.

Weekendz

Talk about a busy April! To start with, the office workload is heavier because a colleague is taking a longer than usual vacation to indulge himself and his family in the cultural delights of Turkey. He’s originally from that region of the world so he wants his kids to experience the place. Can’t fault him for that. However, it translates to lots of overtime for the rest of us in the department.

So, to provide recreational breaks this month we’ve jam-packed our social calendar. The kick-off was a weekend in Whistler with Tannah. The focus for me was to be an exploratory hike to view the “train wreck”. However, we were a bit too early in the season as thick ice-crusted snow still covered many trails under the tree canopy. We’ll try again later in the Spring or Summer. 

Substitute aerobic activity then consisted of a hike from Nita Lake to Alta Lake followed by “Happy Hour” on a Whistler Village patio on whose perimeter patio Tannah was permitted to nap. 

Day Two included a short morning jog in the crisp morning sunshine.

Employment-wise, during the workweek I travelled to Prince George and Vanderhoof for two days of site visits consisting of a large mall and a dumpy hotel.

The following weekend was unfortunately dogless, but Tannah always enjoys her stays with my Mom and her dog. Our destination was Gibson’s Landing on the Sunshine Coast for the April Fool’s Half Marathon 4-person Relay with friends of ours from our Saturday morning running group. Weather was forecasted to be iffy, but in the end the rain held off and our team posted a finish time of 2:02:03. That's about a 1/4 of an hour faster than the two half marathons that I've done as an individual participant.

As I compose this post I’m on a plane en route to Fort St John, then driving to Dawson Creek for another site visit. Then this weekend is the Sun Run in Vancouver.

No wonder I’m tired. But not bored.

Let the Whiteout Begin

My latent hockey interest has been sparked once again. The comparison of a bear awakening from hibernation is not lost on me. As soon as the playoffs start I tend to get interested. At least since the Jets are soaring.

Last night I was pleased to witness the Jets first goal of this playoff season. I was in a restaurant in Fort St. John on a dinner break prior to heading to the airport for my flight home to Vancouver.

Wait a minute...Vancouver, you say? "Aren't you a Canucks fan?" Ah, the dilemma. During what could be a multi-year wait for the home team to rebuild and adjust after the Sedins' departure I have another option open to me. I simply adopt my inlaws team as my own: the Jets. I'm already stocking up on the merch, and we're going to Winnipeg for Easter this year. I'll be sure to dress warmly for the Whiteout.

A Giant Leap for (Hu)Mankind

Do you ever have a dream where it’s super clear and vivid, and you remember it clearly, even beyond that magical 30 seconds upon awakening where you think you’ll remember that dream all day? They seem to be kinda rare, but I had one a couple of nights ago.

The scene began in what looked like Semiahmoo Bay, off the White Rock pier. I’m very familiar with that city as I grew up there. I spent every summer riding my bike down to Marine Drive as often as time would allow. An uncountable number of excursions down to the end of the pier as well.

It’s interesting how memories of different life experiences mesh together in dreams as the pier was interwoven with take-off in a float plane, which I didn’t do until decades later with my present job. The dream sequence began by being already airborne, having just taken off from somewhere adjacent to the end of the pier. Oddly enough I didn’t really have any sensation of being enclosed within the cabin space; in other words my field of vision wasn’t restricted by looking out a porthole-style window. I had a full 360 degree view of my surroundings upon take-off.

Another odd spot (but then again, what isn’t odd within a dream?) was that quite soon after take-off the sensation of being in a plane transitioned quickly to being in a vehicle, a pickup truck I think, to be more specific. After a very short time I approached what seemed to be a roadside rest stop (perhaps sky-stop?) which consisted of a gravel parking lot suspended in the sky. Just two colours were involved: grey (gravel) and blue (sky). I guess that’s the camera geek in me; even subconsciously I was drawn to the composition of grey meets blue.

My mystery conveyance pulled off the skyway (?) and parked next to a pickup already in the rest/sky stop. Then I was walking an uphill grade to my left. Soon another grey to blue transition occurred, although this time the blue turned out to be the surface of the moon! The surface was textured, but not as one is used to seeing in moon photos as in grey sand with large craters, but rather its surface more resembled the textured plastic panels (on a much larger scale) that typically line the walls in a commercial kitchen environment. (Or maybe it was more like the texture of a golf ball.) Again, another blend of life experiences as I’ve walked through many restaurant kitchens in my adult work-life.

Walking on the moon was a trip in itself. For one thing, gravity seemed to be the same as it is on Earth. And the sense of size of the moon was off by a big margin. I can’t really quantify the size of the area upon which I walked, but let’s say it was about the size of a soccer field before the curvature of the orb began to be very noticeable. It wasn’t possible to stray too far off the pitch before one felt that the decline would cause a tumble which would ultimately result in falling right off the moon into space. It wasn’t apparent what would happen then as the moon’s atmosphere in my dream was another radical departure from reality; it was blue just like the Earth’s. So I think because of the familiarity of the colour (blue), it wasn’t as though falling off the moon would result in drifting away like George Clooney did in “Gravity”. It wasn’t apparent at all what would happen, but I felt like it wasn’t to my benefit to test that boundary.

There was a blatant gap between my introduction to the moon and the conclusion of my dream. I have no recollection of what, if anything, transpired after my initial lunar step, but somehow it seemed that I was now in a space that was comprised of two interconnected geometrical shapes; a ball within a box, a round square so to speak. I was at the bottom of a staircase that would have been in the bottom corner quadrant (possibly on the Dark Side of the Moon?) of the cube looking up at a cave dwelling within the sphere (moon). Maybe the stairs were part of some sort of scaffolding. It was immediately apparent that the cave was (or had been) inhabited due to large, intricately carved mask-like decorations placed next to the entrance. No signs of life in the cave mouth and too dark to see within. I didn’t feel any tension, as if an occupant might appear and challenge our presence. And by “our presence” I mean that by this time I was feeling that I was on more a of group tour, just like the ones I’m sometimes assigned to at work when a potential buyer of a building assembles a group of professionals such as an engineer, an elevator specialist, mechanical/electrical specialist, an interior designer, an appraiser, etc. These tours can be quite large. However, with this particular tour of our closest planetary neighbor, the closing scene involved ascending a staircase up and away from the lunar cave.

Feh-boo-wary should be Lie-berry month

I think the best part of the beginning of March is the end of people mis-pronouncing our shortest month as "Feh-boo-wary".

In my opinion that's the calendar equivalent of saying the "lie-berry" is where one goes to borrow books.

Central BC Winter

As part of a portfolio of work I traveled to Quesnel and 100 Mile House a couple of weeks ago. We're swamped with work this month so it's taken me a while to blog about it.

Front row seat for the engines spooling-up prior to take-off as we waited in queue.

I never tire of the scenery in this province. These photo ops are the advantage
of low altitude flights.

I'll have to try to find out which lake this is. It's somewhere
between Whistler and Quesnel I think.

About -20 C when we landed. A bit of a shock to the system crossing
the tarmac to the terminal.

My rental vehicle was pretty plush I have to say, perfect for all the highway
driving I did this trip.

My trip also included 100 Mile House so I did a side trip to
Horse Lake to see the cabin our family used to own. It hasn't
changed much; I'm glad to see it's still there.

A frozen Horse Lake viewed from a boat launch.

Pop-up Concert

OK, you've gotta keep a secret for me on this one. I've been sick with a cold/flu the last three days (i.e., home from work), but I felt well enough, and was hungry enough to drive to Duffins close by to get a sub sandwich for lunch. As I was parking the car it was announced on the radio that the Arkells were going to play a "pop-up" show at a local doughnut shop called Cartems on Main Street.

It crossed my mind that it was only about 15 minutes away and I thought, "Why not go?" So I did. It was pretty cool to see them play their short 3-song acoustic set in a doughnut shop setting. Turns out they played a gig in Cancun (!) on Monday night, then Edmonton last night. I think they went straight from the airport to Cartems, then they're playing the PNE Coliseum tomorrow night. At home later I turned on CBC radio to hear the end of one their songs; turns out I just missed an on-air interview. They probably did a tour of radio stations this afternoon. Talk about a packed itinerary.

The first two songs were beside the front window.

They moved to the centre of the store for their last song.

I guess "merch" in this case is a custom-frosted doughnut instead of a concert
t-shirt.

We last saw them live at a cold outdoor venue during the 2010 Olympics at Holland Park in Surrey. They mentioned that show today between songs.

Chilly Chase 2019

Our running group participated in the Chilly Chase again this year. It was last Sunday morning. It's a dash of varying distances (5K, 10K, 15K or half marathon) starting at Olympic Village and heading along the north side of False to the Inuksuk and then retracing (for 10K).

Here's our happy group full of pre-race enthusiasm.

And here's post-event. My official time was 63:20. The start/finish line clock indicates a slower time but we started running at the drop of the flag; it took a couple of minutes to shuffle forward
to actually cross the start line.

And here's Shauna. Her time was actually around 70:00. According to her stats
this event was her second best ET ever! 

Believe it or not, the hillside adjacent to the Inuksuk at English Bay was
full of early blooming daffodils.

Snow drops are blooming in our East Van front yard.

Even our rhubarb thinks it might be Spring already.

But don't call off Winter just yet. The forecast is for snow on Sunday.